Beacon News

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Happy Thanksgiving from Beacon Consulting Group

Our team is thankful for the opportunity to work with so many great clients, friends, and industry partners. On behalf of everyone here at Beacon, I would like to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, full of good times, laughter, friends, and family.

President's Message / October 2021

I hope you are having a great fall. It's such a beautiful time of year here in the Northeast U.S., where the weather is still mild, but the fall foliage colors are peaking and so many sports and outdoor activities are in full swing. The fall is extremely busy in the construction industry, where there is a race to get many exterior project tasks completed (at least in Northern states) before the snowy weather and freezing temperatures arrive. Beacon is staying very busy, managing a wide variety of interesting construction consulting projects across the U.S. Check out this month's E-news...

President's Message / July 2021

I hope your summer is off to a great start. For me, it has been a great relief to be once again participating at in-person industry events. Last week, I was at the Surety Claims Institute's annual meeting in Park City, Utah, as part of a panel discussion covering The False Claims Act. It was wonderful to see many industry friends, partners, and clients after so long. There really is no replacement for in-person discussions, communications, and sharing of ideas. It was also great to spend some downtime after the meeting with my family, including visiting National Parks such as Zion and Bryce Canyon. Such an amazing part of the country! (Please click below for full message)...

Beacon President's Message Oct. 2020

Well, the World Series is over (congratulations Dodger fans), Covid-19 is boomeranging, and the Presidential Election is upon us. What a year...it seems to be lasting forever! On the bright side, in the construction industry we are seeing some positive news in recent weeks as some large construction projects continue to make progress and plans for some very large new projects are being announced. Let’s hope we will see a good resurgence in the economy and many new project announcements over the next year. This month, we profile a very interesting assignment which Beacon has been consulting on: The Catskill Aqueduct Repair & Rehabilitation Project. We have been providing construction consulting services to a leading Surety related to part of this project, which is a major rehabilitation project of a 104-year-old, 74-mile-long, water-supply aqueduct running from the Catskill Mountains to just north of New York City. Our team has consulted on many critical infrastructure projects over the years, but this is an important one because the aqueduct provides almost half of New York City’s water (more than 8.3 million people count on that aqueduct working right)...

Beacon President's Message September 2020

Happy Fall! I hope this message finds you well. As we enter the last quarter of this challenging year, there is some positive news in the construction industry. Recent reports show the U.S. construction industry bouncing back faster than most other sectors of the economy. For example, there have been solid gains in new construction starts, hiring, and project backlog (source: ConstructionDrive.com). In addition, a 2nd Quarter report by Marcum LLP indicates that the U.S. construction industry unemployment rate dropped down to 8.9%, a big improvement compared to the bleak situation back in the late Spring.

As we cautiously return to more normal conditions (at work and at home), Beacon's growing team continues to work hard on a diverse range of construction consulting projects for our clients. In this month's E-News we profile Elizabeth Paquet, one of our Construction Consultants working out of Beacons' New York office. Elizabeth has been working hard for our clients on a number of different high-profile Surety Consulting assignments over the past year. With more than two decades of industry experience, she is a great addition to our team. In other exciting news, Beacon has established a physical presence in Florida, as well as a European presence based in Ireland....

Beacon President's Message August 2020

I hope your summer is going well. We are keeping busy here at Beacon, assisting our clients on a wide range of projects, including consulting on a number of construction projects delayed by Covid-19 and finding ways to help get them back on schedule asap. The construction industry is adjusting to the "new normal," which includes dealing with many postponed / delayed projects, managing construction sites differently to protect workers, and, for some GCs and Subcontractors, finding ways to survive through a period of economic uncertainty. In this month's E-News, we highlight some of the consulting services Beacon provides which help sureties, insurers, and construction companies during this challenging period. In particular, we have been very active in recent months working on Subcontractor Default Insurance (SDI) consulting assignments.

Beacon President's Message June 2020

I hope this message finds you well and that things are beginning to feel more normal in your area. As the first half of 2020 comes to a close, we are living in a much different world compared to just 4 months ago. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to drastically change how we live and work. In the construction industry, we saw many job sites close down for weeks or months starting in early March, with re-openings varying on a state by state basis. As we enter the summer, many states have already given the green light for construction projects to restart. In some areas, construction never stopped (unless a project was directly affected by on-site personnel catching the virus). However, the pandemic continues to have a major impact on the industry...